Giving Thanks

We hosted Thanksgiving at our house this year; my mom and dad arrived on Wednesday afternoon to spend a few days, and on Wednesday, Karyn, Dave and Alexis arrived along with Dave's mom Jacki and brother Adam and his girlfriend Suzanne. We had 11 of us gathered around the dining room table, including Tommy. My mom did most of the cooking. (THANKS MOM!!!) I carried the turkey up from the basement fridge and supplied the oven. Oh, and I threw the biscuits in the oven and heated up the corn. The turkey was really delicious. I'm thankful for everyone contributing to our Thanksgiving meal in so many different ways - side dishes, appetizers, desserts, watching Tommy (thanks Lexi!), cleaning up, and just good company!

Tommy and Elmo on Thanksgiving

Tommy nibbles on some cheese doodles while watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade

Balloons!!!!

Our handsome little turkey boy!

Hey, where is everybody? I'm hungry!

Look what I found under the table Mom!

While this was not Tommy's first Thanksgiving, it was his first that he could sit at the table and try some of the food. He wasn't that impressed, except for the pickles. He had a little bit of turkey, but most of the weekend he busted our chops when we tried to feed him a meal, other than breakfast. He loves his french toast sticks. I have decided that (this week), meal time is the most frustrating part of our day. Though getting him down for a nap was quite frustrating all weekend too. He ended up overtired at the end of the day since he refused to take a second nap, which while I know he's getting to the point where he may only take one nap some days and eventually lose one nap altogether, when he ends up only napping a total of ONE hour for us we know it could be a really long day, as happy as this kid usually is. At school, he usually takes a short morning nap and then a longer one (2-3 hours) after lunch. I realize he's in a routine at school, and with us on the weekends, not so much since we are usually off someplace, but when we are home, we do try to stick to something close to what school's schedule is, though I'd say we are only successful about 30% of the time when we try to follow their schedule.

Ultimately, we're thankful for every minute with Tommy, whether he's awake or sleeping. He truly bring so much joy and happiness to us. At the end of the day, when I'm putting him to bed and he relaxes, I just stare at him for a while and try to soak it all in. Some bed times go better than others...some nights he willingly goes in the crib and puts himself to sleep...some nights I have to lay on the floor next to the crib for up to 20 minutes and listen as he does eventually put himself to sleep...and some nights, I still have to rock him. But all in all, he goes to sleep relatively quickly 90% of the time. I know soon enough he'll want nothing to do with Mommy putting him to bed, so I am not wishing away the time I get to spend with him!